Terrible Tuesday
by chiroho
Summary: TV Show Episode Title Challenge #2 - Gilmore Girls: Emily in Wonderland - Some Tuesdays are definitely worse than others


**Prompt Set #2**: 

Show: Gilmore Girls

Title Challenge: Emily in Wonderland

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**Author's Note**: For _sienna27 _on her birthday.

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**Terrible Tuesday**

Emily Prentiss pounded her fist against the steering wheel in frustration as she stared into the distance at the unmoving traffic sitting on the highway in front of her. It was nearly eight, a time she'd normally have been in the office, but instead she was involved in an incredibly slow grind south towards her destination – the FBI Academy in Quantico. Looking across at the other side of the highway, she noticed the traffic whizzing north into the District, and she slammed her hand against the steering wheel, swearing loudly as she did so. How was it that the traffic on a Tuesday morning going into DC was flying, while that heading away was stop and go? Flicking on the radio she managed to pick up the last few seconds of the traffic report.

". . . ificant delays on Interstate 95 south, with a multi vehicle accident near exit 152. Two lanes of the highway are closed, and the Virginia State Police are recommending that drivers seek alternate routes as it could take over an hour to clear. Back to you . . ."

Emily groaned as she turned the radio off in disgust. She'd just passed exit 156, so it was the best part of two miles before she got to the accident – two miles without exits or any means of turning around. And she wasn't even driving a pool vehicle so she couldn't just flick on the lights and fly down the breakdown lane. She was going to have to sit and wait like everyone else.

What had she done to deserve this?

Her entire day had been a disaster from the moment she'd woken up. First, she'd somehow slept through her alarm, not waking up until over an hour after she'd normally have been up – only awakened when her cell phone rang. Lunging across her bed to the phone, she'd knocked it flying off the bedside table, and then cracked her knee against said table when she got out of the bed to pick it up.

When she finally managed to answer the phone and heard Hotch start to talk, the battery had died and she'd lost the call. Apparently the little connector thingie hadn't been plugged in correctly, and her phone hadn't been charging overnight as she'd thought. Eventually she was able to call Hotch back on her land line, sounding like a complete idiot she was sure, only to discover that they had a case and he wanted to move the briefing up to nine instead of ten. Normally this wouldn't have been an issue, but today it seemed like the world was conspiring against her.

After rushing around frantically trying to get ready, she'd finally made it out the door shortly before seven fifteen, the fact that Hotch had called just after seven making this something of a record. It should have been more than enough time for the fifty odd minute ride to Quantico, including having time to pick up a coffee. However, while Emily had made it out the door quickly, and had thought the day was improving, things continued to go downhill. There'd been a long line at her local Starbucks, and Chip, her favourite Barista, had given her a very strange look while taking her order. So much so that she'd actually checked her teeth when she'd got back to the car to make sure she hadn't smeared lipstick all over them. Fortunately, that hadn't been the case, but it had been a very peculiar look.

Still pondering Chip's unusual behaviour, Emily had sipped at her coffee while making her way to the highway. It felt like she'd caught every light in Rosslyn along Arlington Boulevard. Fortunately it was still early enough that there wasn't too much traffic on 395, so she'd been able to get onto 95 within 20 minutes of leaving home. Then she'd hit the traffic nightmare which was now in front of her.

Emily knew that she could have lived in one of the newer developments building up on the I95 corridor, but she liked the city. Her hours were usually far enough away from the norm that she didn't hit much traffic, and she liked the ambience of being in the city. Unfortunately, there was always the possibility of a day like today to deal with. A bright, sunny, late April morning, for which there was absolutely no freaking reason for anyone to have an accident. It wasn't raining, it wasn't snowing. She was always astounded by how much worse people drove when the sun was shining!

Shaking her head and resigning herself to the fact that she was going to be crawling for probably the best part of the next hour, Emily picked up her cell phone from the cup holder where she'd dropped it after hooking it up to the car charger and speed dialled a very familiar number.

"_Hotchner_."

The voice sounded somewhat tinny as, despite the fact that she was sitting in the middle of an interstate she had only a little over one bar of service. Typical!

"It's me, Emily. I might not make the briefing at nine."

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Emily practically ran all the way from the elevators to the BAU, making it to her desk a fraction before nine. Slipping off her raincoat, despite the sunny morning there was supposed to be rain in the afternoon, she quickly adjusted the top of her Victoria's Secret Pink pajamas.

WHAT?!?!

She looked down in horror at what she was wearing, and found that it was very definitely the same set of pale pink cotton floral pajamas that she'd worn to bed the previous night. No wonder Chip had given her a strange look when she'd got her coffee – she'd worn her pajamas to work!

Talk about a recurring nightmare becoming reality!

Quickly throwing her raincoat back on, and noticing at the same time that she was not only still wearing her pajamas, but that she'd somehow not managed to put a bra on either, which was frankly just typical of the day she was having, Emily frantically looked around for her go-bag – which was nowhere to be seen. Shit! Where had she left it? Moving her chair around, she drew the attention of their youngest team member who until that point had fortunately been otherwise occupied.

"Looking for something, Emily?" It was the distracted voice he used when he was only half concentrating on the social interaction.

"Have you seen my go-bag?" She crouched down to look under her desk, and of course the damn bag wasn't there!

"Did you leave it in the car?" Spencer's voice was a lot more intrigued. Apparently her forgetting something was something worth taking an interest in.

Standing up, she looked over towards his desk, and noticed immediately that he was wearing a somewhat faded and ratty looking Cal Tech sweatshirt, which piqued her own interest. Why was he wearing such an old looking shirt? However, before she could pose the question, another familiar voice came from across the room.

"Decided to join us today, did you Emily?" She could hear the smirk in his voice as a bare chested Derek Morgan walked towards his desk, coffee mug in hand.

Trying not to let her jaw hit the floor, Emily turned slightly to see that all Derek appeared to be wearing was a pair of purple silk pajama pants, the look doing nothing but emphasize just how well developed his upper body was.

Completely stupefied, Emily could do nothing but stand there staring at both her co-workers, and was still doing that some twenty seconds later when she heard a breezy "Hey Emily" called from behind her. Turning, she saw JJ walking over to the conference room, stack of folders in hand, wearing what appeared to be only a white camisole and grey boy shorts.

She was still staring after JJ when there was a voice right behind her.

"Are you alright, Prentiss?"

Spinning around, she found that her boss was wearing only a white t-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts, but had his briefcase in one hand, and a stack of folders in the other.

"Sir?" Emily hoped she didn't sound as stupid as she thought she did.

"Glad you made it. Now don't be late for the briefing." Hotch moved off in the direction of the conference room, leaving her staring after him, feeling like she'd fallen asleep and woken up in some sort of wonderland.

Emily turned to her desk to look again for something to change into, ignoring the looks which Derek and Spencer were giving her as they walked across the bullpen, and was still rooting around in a desk draw when she heard her name.

"Coming, Emily?"

She looked up to see a stark naked David Rossi standing in the doorway to his office.

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"WHOA!"

Emily woke to find herself sitting bolt upright in her seat on the BAU jet.

"Emily? Are you okay?" The concerned voice came from her right, where she remembered Hotch had been sitting and doing his usual post-case paperwork. She'd apparently fallen asleep some time after they'd left southern Oregon on the way back to the east coast.

"I'm . . . fine."

She turned to see a concerned expression on his face, although his face hadn't actually changed very much. Mostly, it seemed to come through his eyes, usually dark and piercing, but currently warm and comforting.

"Bad dream?" His tone matched his expression. He probably thought she'd been dreaming about the case.

"Kinda. I mean, not a nightmare. More . . . surprising I guess. But I woke up suddenly when Dave walked out of his office wearing his birthday suit." Emily suddenly had the intense feeling that the explanation of her dream wasn't going quite as she'd intended. Certain she was blushing, she looked at Hotch, whose only change in expression had been to incline his head slightly to one side, and significantly raise his left eyebrow.

"You dream about Dave being naked, Prentiss? Is there something I should know?" She felt her cheeks heat significantly at the remark, but she detected just a trace of that dry wit which surfaced altogether too rarely in his voice.

Emily looked down, swearing under her breath in several languages – expressions that an Ambassador's daughter definitely wasn't supposed to know. Now how was she going to dig herself out of this?

"GOD NO! Nothing like that!" She shuddered. Dave was a nice guy, but her interest lay in other areas – particularly the area immediately to her right. "It was just . . . a very strange dream about everyone coming to work in their pajamas." _Oh yeah, great explanation Em. He's certainly going to buy that one._ She glanced up and could almost feel his eyes on her, seeking out the truth of the matter. Finding it difficult to hold such a penetrating stare, Emily dropped her own gaze to her lap.

"So how is it you know that Dave sleeps naked?" The dry wit she'd head earlier had morphed into something more obvious, and when she looked back up there was a definite twinkle in Hotch's eyes.

"Well, it just seemed . . . I mean, it seems to suit his personality." She thought for a moment. "Hang on a sec. How do _you_ know that Dave sleeps naked?"

The corner of Hotch's lip quirked up in a half smile. "Let's just say that back in the old days, the BAU couldn't always afford separate rooms for each team member. And that's all I'm ever going to say about it."

She chuckled, and filed the story away for a day when Rossi might have had a few too many glasses of whiskey, which was certainly more likely than her getting the story out of Hotch. Feeling Hotch's shoulder against hers, Emily looked up to see him leaning in conspiratally.

"So, what was it that you wore to work, Agent Prentiss?"

Almost too stunned to respond to what seemed to be quite blatant flirting, certainly from her usually stiff Unit Chief, Emily's mouth dropped open, before she finally recovered her wits enough to laugh.

"Wouldn't you like to know, sir. Wouldn't you like to know."

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_A/N2: This has been floating around in my brain for months, but only became reality in the last few days. According to sienna27, this story fits into the Being Aaron Hotchner & Being Emily Prentiss universe, but is a prequel to anything of those other stories. It's not technically part of the series because it's not a first person story, but it seems to fit in there somewhere._

_And yes, I know that I haven't written much of anything in a long time, but there are some things in the works. It's just that they're not coming as quickly as I'd like. They will eventually appear though, one day. :)  
_


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